Guide to the Eleanor Hallowell Abbott Papers, 1905-1936

Collection number: MC 145
Size: 1 box
(0.33 cu.ft.)

About Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

Eleanor Hallowell Abbott (1872-1958) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As the daughter of
clergyman Edward Abbott and granddaughter of Jacob Abbott – a well-known children’s
author and friend to Longfellow and Lowell – she grew up in a decidedly religious
and scholarly environment. She studied at Radcliffe, worked as a secretary and
teacher at Lowell State Normal School, and wrote poems and short stories. In 1908
she married Dr. Fordyce Coburn and moved to Wilton, N.H. At about the same time,
Harper's, Collier's, and The Delineator accepted
some of her works for publication. She soon acquired national recognition and went
on to publish 14 books and more than 75 magazine stories. Her fiction, which was
unabashedly romantic and almost exclusively focused on young women, was frequently
described as charming and was particularly popular in the 1910s and 1920s. A partial
list of Abbott’s books includes:

About the Eleanor Hallowell Abbott Papers

The Eleanor Hallowell Abbott collection primarily contains typescripts of a number of
Abbott’s short stories, including “Axiom Is That Axiom Does” (n.d.), “Being Little
in Cambridge When Everyone Else Was Big” (1936), “Hi-There” (1932), “Proud People
Under Old Umbrellas” – later titled “The Last Word” (1932), “The Screaming Girl”
(n.d.), “Someone to Sit with Reggie” (n.d.), and an untitled manuscript. The
collection also includes a letter from Abbott to a “Mr. Chapman” regarding her
Christmas story “Peace on Earth, Good Will to Hogs,” a scrapbook containing her
story “The Sick-A-Bed Lady,” which was published in Collier's, and promotional advertisements for her book Molly Make-Believe (1910).

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

This collection is open

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about publication or reproduction rights, contact Special Collections staff